Corey Kluber: Legit Cy Young candidate

Going into the 2014 season the list of usual “suspects” for success seemed unchanged from the year before. Take the Cy Young Award candidates, for example. Everyone’s list included the obvious, a Clayton Kershaw or an Adam Wainwright in the National League, and, a Felix Hernandez (still considered by many as the leading candidate), a David Price, or a Max Scherzer in the junior circuit. Even if Cleveland fans felt the Indians had a likely Cy Young candidate, they would have probably been hoping for a big season from Justin Masterson. Now, experts and fans alike believe Corey Kluber has a chance to elbow his way among the usual big boys in the AL and wrestle the prestigious award away from them.

There was nothing in Kluber’s past to suggest he would excel in 2014. Entering the season, the 28 year old righty out of Stetson University had just 36 big league starts under his belt (he would make a league leading 34 starts in 2014) and his ERA ranged from a decent 3.85 in 2013 up to 5.14 in 2012 when he pitched in just 12 games and up to a high of 8.31 in 2011 when he worked in only three contests.  Going into 2014 his lifetime record stood at a modest 13-10.

Things quickly changed in 2014. He went 18-9, with his 18 wins ranking first in the American League. His ERA plunged 1.41 points, down to a highly impressive 2.44. His FIP (fielding independent pitching which measures a pitchers ability to avoid walking and hitting batters, and preventing home runs while being able to record strike outs) stood at a league-leading mark of 2.35. He did, in fact, fan 269 batters (#2 in the AL and the most by an Indians pitcher since “Sudden” Sam McDowell struck out 304 in 1970) while being stingy with the base on balls, allowing 51. That gave him the sixth best K-to-BB ratio in league play at 5.275. His WAR was the best in the league among pitchers, his ERA ranked third, and his win-loss percentage of .667 stood ninth best in the AL.

In addition, his walks plus hits per nine innings of work (1.095) was the sixth best average in his league, and his 10.273 strikeouts per nine innings ranked third. Not only that, he was as durable as he was willing to take the ball— his 235 2/3 innings of toil were the third most in the league. In short, he was a statistics lovers’ dream come true.

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In September, as the Indians still scraped for a wild-card berth, Kluber won the American League Pitcher of the Month award. Over that span he went 5-1 with a glittering ERA of 1.12 and he whiffed 54 batters over 40 1/3 IP. He also became just the ninth pitcher since 1900 to fan 14+ batters in back-to-back outings. He put away 14 Astros on strikes on the 16th of the month, then K’ed 14 Twins in eight innings five days later. He worked at least eight innings in four of his final five starts with 39 strikeouts over his last 23 innings on the mound.

Rarely demonstrative, not the type of player to show up opponents or display frustration on those rare occasions when he does poorly, Kluber’s success may stem largely due to one move he agreed to make when he pitched in the minors for the Columbus Clippers. In 2012 he shelved his four-seam fastball and made his two-seamer, which tended to stay down in the strike zone, his money pitch.

Of course he has other weapons such as his cutter and slider along with an occasion change up, but the decision to use the two-seamer over the four-seamer has paid off enormously. In fact, the ultimate payoff in 2014 could very well be the presentation of the Cy Young Award to Kluber real soon.